Hey...I am/was Catholic. Went to Catholic school 1st thru 12th grades. Was a good Catholic kid. I wonder if I could campaign to be picked to be pope. Pope Nicholas III. Man...the changes I could bring and I would open up the Vatican vault to all the secrets they have kept from mankind for 2000 years.

Yep, seems weird. Chosen by god and then quitting. Strange. Of course god hasn't done much protecting of the dudes over the course of history. The last one got shot. You'd think god could have done a little more protecting. Guess if I had such an important job and realized that my boss didn't have my back I'd think about a career change too.

rhocam ~ I guess there are several trillion cells in a man, and one in an amoeba, so to be generous, lets say that there were a billion. That is one every fifteen years. So in my lifetime I should have seen two evolutionary changes.

Joking aside, I actually think this is a good idea. The last pope went on and on looking frailer and frailer and it was hardly fair on the guy, The current guy is going whilst he doesn't look so bad. I hope he manages to enjoy what life is left to him.

Of course the resignation could be an attempt to put the 'kiddy fiddling' behind the church. For right or wrong, Raztinger has been seen as the chief of those who tried to cover it all up and keep it from the police. Maybe he thinks if he goes he will take the problems with him and leave the church with a clean slate. Some hope!

now as to the predication that the next pope is to be the last and the world is going to end... sounds like we are living in interesting time, unless the guy who predicted this is Harold Camping in which case the fun is over.

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No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such that its falshood would be more miraculous than the facts it endeavours to establish. (David Hume)

Joking aside, I actually think this is a good idea. The last pope went on and on looking frailer and frailer and it was hardly fair on the guy, The current guy is going whilst he doesn't look so bad. I hope he manages to enjoy what life is left to him.

To the faithful, it must look as if he is rejecting God's blessing and saying that God made a mistake in appointing him.

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Of course the resignation could be an attempt to put the 'kiddy fiddling' behind the church.

That crossed my mind too. However, I think it is more likely that Ratslinger will not change his mind on some Catholic dogma/issue; the rest of the church want it and he has been persuaded to resign to make room for a change of course.

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now as to the predication that the next pope is to be the last and the world is going to end

I missed that! I will save the world by putting my name forward.

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Nobody says “There are many things that we thought were natural processes, but now know that a god did them.”

I think it was the third pope back that died very shortly after taking office. Rumors that he had been knocked off by his own people for not being popish enough or something swirled around, but it was pre-internet, so things didn't swirl around as much back then. But that has me thinking that if they did indeed off that guy, they could off this one if he was being a bad boy. Maybe he just wants more time to surf the web.

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Anyone can beat around the bush. But unless you have permission from the bush, you probably shouldn't.

I had heard that Pope Paul I was going to make ratical progressive changes so they offed him. But you would have thought that they might have known about him before electing him. Its not like any of them are new kids on the block.